164 THE PIRATES OF MALABAR

were deposed and sometimes put to death or
marooned ; but Teach, as fearless as he was merci-
less, ruled his crew by terror. As an instance of
his savage humour, it is related that on one
occasion, in a drinking bout, he blew out the light
and fired two pistols among his companions,
wounding Israel Hands, his sailing master, severely.
On being asked why he did it, he damned them,
and said if he did not kill one of them now and
then, they would forget who he was. So impressed
were his crew with his wickedness, that they
believed they carried the devil on board, who
appeared at intervals among them as one of the
crew, but could not be identified as belonging to
the ship's company. Once he fought the Scar-
borough, a man-of-war of thirty guns, and beat
her off. He boldly went ashore when he pleased,
forcing the Governor of North Carolina to marry
him, and to supply him with medicines for his
crew. With his face covered with black hair, and
a beard of extravagant length, fantastically tied
up in ribbons, he presented a wild and truculent
figure that was the terror of the coast.

An extract of a journal he kept, found after his
death, is given by Johnson—